About Ethos Studios
Ethos Studios is a lifelong labor of love built by two friends who enjoy great stories, great systems, and role-playing games.
The Ethos Team met in college and started playing D&D with their close friends. Since then, they’ve led and played in 7 long-running games and countless one-shots.
Over time, they felt stifled by linear character progression, sudden advancements in power and ability with no narrative justification, and an overall focus on powering up in lieu of authentic character development and immersion in story.
Every D&D game has a few homebrew rules. But what they needed was more than tweaks or minor adjustments. Building on those early adventures, they created an entirely new system of Dungeons & Dragons, which they dubbed the Bonsai System.
Creators of the Bonsai System of D&D
Unlike other systems, the Bonsai System of D&D allows players to organically build and customize their characters, and thereby to more fully embody their stories.
Everyone is shaped by the experiences they have, and none of us follow a linear path. The Bonsai system lets each player build a character that reflects and embodies the experiences they have in game. Those characters go on to shape—and be shaped by—the world that the dungeonmaster and players co-create.
Our system codifies that in a meaningful, balanced, and fun way, letting each character’s choices drive the evolution of their skills and abilities.
One-Shots and RPG Content
Ethos Studios is the platform through which we share our creative efforts:
Hosting live one-shot adventures for working teams and gaming groups, with Ben himself as the dungeonmaster
Publishing RPG content (coming soon!) from our own active games using the Bonsai system
Refining, playtesting, and codifying the Bonsai system for future release in the DNDBeyond marketplace.
Our driving purpose is to create, share, and facilitate powerful, character-driven stories.
See the Bonsai System in Action
Our first live game featuring the Bonsai system in action is coming soon!
Find out when the first episode drops.